Endoscopy illumination system for stroboscopy

Abstract

An endoscopy illumination system with a light-emitting element placed at the tip of an endoscope is disclosed. Pulses of light illuminate moving parts of the human body, enabling an observer to obtain information about the dynamical behavior of intracorporal structures, including vocal fold oscillations. An electronic control unit, which may obtain frequency and phase information from a microphone detecting the sound of an examinee's voice, generates light pulses for stroboscopy. The light-emitting elements are over-modulated light emitting diodes in the preferred embodiment. The endoscopy illumination system may be powered by batteries, rechargeables, or transformers. When image capture devices, including CCD and CMOS cameras, are used to record video images, electronic gating circuits activate the light-emitting elements, resulting in improved imaging.

We claim:  
     
       1. An endoscopy illumination system for supplying an illumination light for endoscopy purposes with a light-emitting element and an electronic control unit comprising: 
       (a) a light-emitting element, being detachable, connected to said electronic control unit and detachably attached to the tip of an elongated part insertable into a human body comprising an endoscope, a tip-mounted CCD or CMOS camera, said light-emitting element being directed to the object of examination, said light-emitting element comprising light emitting diodes over-modulatable in a pulsed mode, and said pulses comprising frequency-associated pulses for stroboscopy use;  
       (b) an electronic control unit comprising:  
       (ba) a movement-detection circuit for detecting a movement of an object of examination from signals supplied from an external source comprising microphone-related signals or electroglottography-related signals, said movement detection circuit being attached to or integrated within said electronic control unit, where said movement-related signals are further processed;  
       (bb) a delay circuit integrated within said electronic control unit, delaying pulses in a pulsed trigger signal with a controlable phase delay from 0° to 360° in relation to the movements of the object of examination, said delayed pulse trigger signal directly or indirectly activating said light-emitting element, comprising pulsed flashing modes for stroboscopy, for example to illuminate for ‘motionless’ phase-locked or ‘slow-motion’ imaging C.  
     
     
       2. An endoscopy illumination system according to  claim 1  wherein said electronic control unit comprises a gating circuit integrated within said electronic control unit gating said delayed pulsed trigger signals from said delay circuit according to an input signal received from a detachably connected image capture device, whereby pulsed signals from said delay circuit are gated for pulses within desired active image acquisition phases of said image capture device, and where the gating circuit output signal activates said light-emitting element, resulting in improved imaging, including prevention of interference patterns on an image display device and avoiding streak formation on an image screen. 
     
     
       3. An endoscopy illumination system according to  claim 2  wherein said pulsed signals from said delay circuit are gated for pulses within desired active image acquisition phases of said image capture device, and where a constant illumination of image frames is provided by the number of illuminating flashes. 
     
     
       4. An endoscopy illumination system according to any of claims  1 ,  2 , or  3  wherein said electronic control unit comprises a gating circuit integrated within said electronic control unit gating said delayed pulsed trigger signals from said delay circuit according to an input signal received from a detachably connected image capture device, whereby pulsed signals from said delay circuit may lead to more than one illuminating flashes within one image frame, but only when similar oscillation phases are present, i.e., the oscillating object may only be illuminated at the same position. 
     
     
       5. An endoscopy illumination system according to  claim 1 , wherein said electronic control unit comprises an automatically activated electrical default generator circuit integrated within said electronic control unit generating a signal to provide illumination within time intervals where no triggering signal is present. 
     
     
       6. An endoscopy illumination system according to  claim 1 , wherein said electronic control unit comprises an automatically activated switch integrated within said electronic control unit enabling pulse triggered illumination or default generator circuit illumination in the case no image capture device is attached or integrated to the electronic control unit. 
     
     
       7. An endoscopy illumination system according to  claim 1 , wherein said electronic control unit comprises a circuit integrated within said electronic control unit to over-modulate said LEDs in said light-emitting element, providing and controling maximum energy output for duty cycles and also providing and controling mean energy consumption over time, including means for improving safety and reliability such as low pass filtering, light-emitting element temperature control, current limiting, and voltage limiting. 
     
     
       8. An endoscopy illumination system according to  claim 1 , wherein said endoscopy illumination system includes intracorporal and/or extracorporal light emitting element positions, where extracorporal light is routed by means of a conductor into the body, comprising extracorporal light emitting diode(s) connected to at least one glass fiber cable. 
     
     
       9. An endoscopy illumination system according to  claim 1 , wherein said endoscopy illumination system utilizes related semiconductor elements such as laser diodes and light emitting diodes with invisible light. 
     
     
       10. An endoscopy illumination system according to  claim 1 , wherein said endoscopy illumination system utilizes either power-outlet-dependent and/or power-outlet-independent energy supplying elements including, but not limited to: batteries, rechargeables, and transformers.